


The Girl With The Broken Smile

by lunarknightz



Category: Smallville
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Gen, Minor Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-24
Updated: 2016-09-24
Packaged: 2018-08-16 23:08:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8121223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lunarknightz/pseuds/lunarknightz
Summary: Alternate Universe story in which Gabe Sullivan died in the bomb set off in "Covenant".  
 
All Clark wants to do is make Chloe smile.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written as a gift for Danamulder in July 2004.

Today was her birthday. She was 18 years old today.

She didn’t act like your typical birthday girl. 

Chloe wasn’t smiling, wasn’t celebrating. She sat on the couch, staring out of the window, into the dark and drizzling Kansas sky. Her hair wasn’t done, no where near it’s normal flippy state. It was limp, with bangs falling in her eyes. Her offbeat yet wonderfully quirky clothes were still up in her closet- on a hot Summer’s day, she was wore an old Smallville PE t-shirt and a bleach spotted pair of sweat pants. 

This girl was the ghost of who Chloe Sullivan used to be.

Everyone was changing- it had been a challenging Summer for them all. Pete was in Wichita, attending a school that he professed to hate in all his emails. Time in Paris had changed Lana, though not her taste for the color pink. Lana had a steady boyfriend, the first one since Whitney, and spent most of her time with him. Lex spent time in the hospital after apparently being poisoned, and now had Luthorcorp under his control. And Clark…he’d been faced with his supposed destiny. Something that he just didn’t want to think about. 

But no one’s Summer had been like Chloe’s.

Lionel had ordered a hit on Chloe. 

Lex had planned for this possibility, and had safeguards to assure Chloe’s safety. 

A bomb did go off, but it did not kill its intended subject of Chloe Sullivan. 

Instead, it killed her father. 

Chloe had spent her Summer in hiding under the watch of her uncle, General Sam Lane. 

She didn’t talk much about the Summer. 

Clark didn’t blame her one bit. 

It had been Hell, coming back and finding out that Chloe was dead. Chloe couldn’t be dead…she was his best friend, she had a future, millions of stories that the Daily Planet needed her to write. There were movies to be MST300ked on Friday nights in the Kent living room, endless cups of coffee to be drunk, a thousand snarks to be snarked. He had saved her so many times in the past…just to fail her now?

And then finding Chloe, with the help of her cousin Lois, it was a beautiful moment. Lois, who was so much like Chloe, and yet so different, as if Chloe was Lois with the attitude monitor turned up to 10, or a la Spinal Tap, 11. It was as if he was pulling her out of the fire once more, saving her from being being buried alive, or dying of a truth serum overdose. He had saved her. Chloe- his Chloe- would be okay.

But was she really okay?

General Lane had custody of Chloe, as her closest surviving relative. But after some begging and a couple of Martha’s excellent Apple pies, she was allowed to stay with the Kents. The guestroom was now Chloe’s room. 

At school, or in public, she would pretend that everything was okay, put on a happy face. As soon as classes were over, she’d go home, and hide up into her room until dinner. Afterwards she would do a few chores and then go to bed. Chloe still wrote articles from the Torch, but mostly worked from the computer in her room.

She cried herself to sleep every night. 

Super hearing was really a crappy power to have.

He’d tried going to talk to her one night, but the blonde with tear-stained eyes just lobbed a pillow at him. So now, when he heard the tears stop and her breathing even, Clark would sneak down the hallway and watch her sleep, cover her up, and make sure she had a glass of water on the nightstand. 

If Chloe noticed it, she never mentioned it.

Clark missed Chloe’s smile.

If only…if only he could do more, like reverse time and bring Gabe back to life. To bring back that light, that spark, that was missing from her blue eyes.

If only Chloe could laugh again.

“Hey Birthday Girl.” Clark went on the couch and sat beside her. 

“Oh…Hi, Clark.” She turned her attention away from the window. 

“It’s…it’s really coming down out there, isn’t it?”

“Yeah…” Her attention was drifting back towards the window. 

He had to think of something quick. “Hey, get your shoes on.”

“Huh?”

“Just come on. And not those little strappy things either.”

“Hey, I stole those from Lois. They’re like designer Jimmy Choo’s…or a knock off or something. I’ll wear those if I want.”

They walked to the front door, Clark stooping down to put on a pair of workbooks, and Chloe a pair of Nikes. He grabbed an umbrella and called to Martha “Going for a quick walk with Chloe, be back soon.”

They walked out the door and onto the porch. The umbrella was stuck and Clark tried to force the device to open up.

“Damn!” Clark muttered as the umbrella broke, the spokes actually shattering. 

Super-strength really sucked, too.

“Old umbrella.” He muttered as explanation. 

His griping was stopped by the most wondrous sound. 

Chloe was laughing.

Soon Clark was laughing as well. His sides hurt, and he leaned against the porch rail for support. He promptly fell down the stairs into a puddle of mud.

“Way to go Kent.” Chloe said, a hint of the girl that used to be creeping back into her voice. She laughed even harder.

Clark shrugged. Acting like an idiot was worth it, if it made Chloe smile. 

“Can you help me up?”

“Promise you won’t take me with you?”

“Yup. Help? Please? This is really…dirty.”

“Duh, Spazzway. It’s mud. Mud equals dirt…ahhhh!” she squealed as Clark pulled her down into the giant muddle puddle beside him. “That is so not funny Clark!”

“I’ve heard that mud does wonders for the complexion.” Clark laughed.

Things seemed to grow quite blurry, and then quite clear.

He was soaking wet in a huge mud puddle, with an incredibly sexy girl. Why hadn’t he seen Chloe before- how could you know someone for years, but never really see them? She was beautiful, and suddenly there was nothing more that Clark wanted to do but kiss her.

So he did.

She was surprised at first, and then leaned into the kiss.

Where did she learn to kiss like that?

Lana never kissed like that.

And why did Chloe taste minty?

“Wow.” Her voice was husky as they pulled away from another.

“Yeah” Clark’s voice was equally as deep. 

This time, Chloe instigated the kiss, which grew quite involved.

“Clark! Chloe!” Martha called as she opened the front door. “What would you think about going out for dinner tonight, we could even call La…” Her voice dropped off as she saw the teenagers disentangling themselves from each other. With a knowing smile, Martha turned to go back inside. She’d need some heavy duty Clorox to get mud out of those clothes.

Chloe blushed, and Clark was sure his face was scarlet as well. He pulled himself up and offered Chloe a hand. 

“So I guess we better go in, huh?”

“Yeah. Do you want…uh, you can wash up first.”

“Okay.” She said with a nod. Her smile was beginning to fade. She climbed up the stairs, towards the door.

“Chloe” he said as her hand touched the door knob.

“Yeah?”

“I’m sorry…about the kiss.”

The look on her face was one of horror. “I guess it was a mistake…” she replied, her voice wavering.

“No, I mean I’m sorry I didn’t do that a long time ago.”

A small squeal escaped from her lips, and she hopped down the stairs, kissing Clark once more.

“I’m just glad you did it now.” She said with a shy smile after the kiss ended. “And I really…I’m really muddy right now, huh?”

“Yeah.” Clark laughed. “But you’re still my Chloe. You’re beautiful, mud or not.”

She smiled and entered the house.

Clark wasn’t expecting that to happen. He’d wanted to make Chloe feel better- but he’d never thought about…

This wasn’t the end of all Chloe’s worries and problems. All his super powers couldn’t give Chloe back the past she’d lost.

But maybe Clark could help her build a new future.


End file.
